De Officio Hominis & Civis Juxta Legem Naturalem

by Samuel Pufendorf

De Officio is a synopsis of Pufendorf's De Jure Naturae et Gentium, a landmark work that proposed a thorough system of private, public, and international law based on natural law. Beginning with a consideration of fundamental legal ideas and their various divisions, Pufendorf proceeds to a discussion of the validity of customs, the doctrines of necessity and innate human reason. It is significant in part because it develops principles introduced by Grotius and Hobbes. Unlike Hobbes, Pufendorf argued that peace, not war, was the state of nature, and he proposed that international law was not restricted to Christendom.

Bibliographic Information

Author: Samuel Pufendorf

Title: S. Pufendorfii, De Officio Hominis & Civis Juxta Legem Naturalem Libri Duo: Selectis Variorum Notis, Maximeq; Propriis Illustravit... Buddei Historiam Juris Naturalis Notis Adauctam Præmisit, Indicemq

Published: Londini: impensis G. Thurlbourn, 1758.

Edition:

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in recent period-style quarter calf over marbled boards with raised bands, a lettering piece to the spine, and renewed endpapers. Title page with copperplate vignette is printed in red and black with attractive woodcut head and tail-pieces. Contains signature of early owner, William Jackson. Purchased from the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.